Picker stick



Oct. 29, 1940. w 2,219,946

PICKER STICK Filed Feb. 20, 1939 INVENTOR JA/ns fiE/D WH/ r5 I) BY J i ATTQRNEY Patented Get. 29, 1940 its eyes angle:

This invention relates to picker sticks for looms, and aims to make it possible to employ oversized shuttles in a given loom without modification of the picker, the shuttle-box, the lay, or other related parts of the loom apart from the picker stick.

It has become a common practice to increase the size of the yarn-packages used in the shuttles of existing looms beyond the dimensions for which the loom was built, so that the loomwill run longer before such filling-supply needs to be replenished. Such increase in the dimensions of the wound bobbins requires a larger shuttle, and the corresponding increase in the width of the shuttle throws its central longitudinal line or axis out of the plane of the center line of the picker stick-slot and correspondingly out of the plane of oscillation of the central line of the picker stick. Several ways of compensating for this off-center relationship between the stick and the shuttle have been tried, as by locating the shuttle points in horizontally offset relation to the central longitudinal line of the shuttle, but this has the drawback of tending to make the forward end of the shuttle deviate from its intended course when the shuttle is picked; orbylocating the hole in the picker which receives the shuttle point in offset relation to the plane passing through the center of the picker stick parallel to the lay, which puts a twisting strain on the picker tending to twist itabout the longitudinal axis of the picker stick with stretching of its loop acting to loosen the picker on its stick and thus to lead to improper functioning. Further, when it is desired to use molded pickers, which have pre-formed depressions in their faces to receive the shuttle points, a stock of right-hand and left-hand pickers must be maintained since the shuttle-point hole must be located differently at each end of the loom.

To enable the width and thus the capacity of the shuttle to be increased up to the limits of possibilities of the shuttle-box, without entailing these drawbacks, I have found that a slight offsetting of the portion of the picker stick that is at all times above the lay, or above the shuttlebox bottom, will solve the problem without recourse to displacing the shuttle points out of line with the center of gravity of the shuttle or to displacing the shuttle-point hole away from the center of the face of the picker. Thus, the invention comprises a picker stick having its top portion which is engaged by the picker offset in a direction either frontwardly or rearwardly of the loom, as the particular construction of shuttie-box may require, with respect to the portion ofthe stick which extends through the picker stick slot in the shuttle-box.

An illustrative embodiment of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 is a view in vertical section made transversely through the shuttle-box and lay of a loom, showing the upper end of my improved picker stick in the shuttle-box slot and with a picker shown in section thereon, the position of the shuttle being indicated in dotted lines.

Fig. 2 is an elevation of the improved picker stick in full length, looking in the direction of its movement when installed in the loom.

Fig. 3 is a side elevation showing the improved 15 picker stick in full, viewed at right angles to its plane of oscillation when installed in the loom.

The novel picker stick I is formed as heretofore in any desired shape or manner so far as the parts below the top surface of the lay 3 or of the shuttle-box bottom plate, where one is used, are concerned. The portion which extends above the shuttle-supporting surface 5, within the shuttlebox I, is offset as shown, by any suitable or desired method, preferably through so shaping it when cutting the entire stick from a single piece of woo-d, though it may be attained by gluing or otherwise attaching to the face of the picker stick which is toward the binder H of the shuttle-box a piece of material, preferably a piece of the same wood from which the picker stick is made, and correspondingly cutting away the opposite face of the picker stick to an extent equalling the thickness which has been added by the application of piece 9. Thus, one face of the portion of the picker stick that is above the floor of the shuttle box I is offset to lie in a plane parallel to one flat side of the picker stick and lying within the thickness of the stick, while the other face of such top portion of the stick lies in a plane parallel to the other side of the picker stick but outside of the thickness of the stick. No change is made in the inward and outward faces of this top portion of the stick. By this means the top end of the stick is kept of the customary dimensions to receive the loop of the picker i3 with the necessary tight fit, while the common vertical center plane of this top portion and of the picker is offset with respect to the plane of oscillation of the center line of the rest of the picker stick, which latter cannot be changed on account of the slot l5 in which it must work in the lay 3.

The ofiset of the picker stick equals the extent of shift of the position of the shuttle-point as a result of using the oversized shuttle. That is, the

the center of the picker and the center of the top end of the picker stick is offset from the corresponding plane through the center of the rest of the stick and the slot in the lay-beam by the same distance the centrally-located shuttle point is displaced from the latter plane by the increase in the width of the shuttle. Thus, the use of a shuttle l9 one-half inch wider than standard requires an ofi'set of A, inch at the top of the picker stick.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a loom, in combination, a lay, a shuttlebox, and a picker stick working in a slot in such lay and having its portion above the lay ofiset transversely of the lay with respectto the adjacent portion working within the slot.

2. In a loom, in combination, a lay, a shuttleboX, and a picker stick Working in a slot in such lay and having its portion above the lay offset transversely of the lay with respect to the adjacent portion working within the slot, and a picker on the offset portion of the picker stick.

common plane extending across the loom through 3. In a loom, in combination, a lay, a shuttlebox, a shuttle, having its points on the central longitudinal line of the shuttle, a picker stick having one of its faces confronting the shuttlebox walls cut away and the other of such faces built out beyond the surface of the adjacent lower portion of the picker stick, and a picker engaged in the center of its working face by the shuttle and mounted symmetrically on the cutaway and built-out portion of the picker stick.

4. In a loom, in combination, a lay, a shuttlebox thereon, a picker stick slot in the lay, a shuttle; having its points substantially displaced transversely of the lay from the longitudinal vertical median plane of the slot, a picker stick having its portion which works in the slot substantially centered in such plane and its pickerbearing portion ofiset from such plane and centered with the shuttlepoints, and a picker on the stick likewise transversely centered with the shuttle-points. JAKE REID WHITE. 

